"I think I am best placed with my programme to beat Marine Le Pen," Juppe said on Friday, referring to the nationalist and anti-immigration boss of the National Front.

Francois Fillon, whose surge has taken commentators and pollsters by surprise, gave an assured performance in a televised debate last night against his centrist rival, long-time favourite Alain Juppe. (source: AP)

Conservative French presidential front-runner Francois Fillon holds a final rally in Paris on Friday as he seeks to clinch the nomination for the centre-right Republicans in a primary vote this weekend. Fillon, whose surge has taken commentators and pollsters by surprise, gave an assured performance in a televised debate last night against his centrist rival, long-time favourite Alain Juppe.

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Fifty-seven percent of viewers judged Fillon to have been the most convincing, according to an independent poll for the BFMTV television channel of 908 people who followed the nearly two-hour exchange. A total of 8.5 million people tuned in to hear the two ex-prime ministers stress their differences on public sectors cuts, relations between France and Russia, and their views on multiculturalism.

Fillon will hold a rally in Paris this evening where he hopes to draw up to 10,000 people, while Juppe is campaigning in the city of Nancy in eastern France. Both men are already looking ahead to their rivals in next year’s election that will feature resurgent far-right leader Marine Le Pen, as well as a Socialist party candidate and independents.

“I think I am best placed with my programme to beat Marine Le Pen,” Juppe said on Friday, referring to the nationalist and anti-immigration boss of the National Front. On Thursday night’s debate cast into stark relief the differences between the candidates, with Fillon often portraying 71-year-old Juppe as not ambitious enough and Juppe accusing his rival of being unrealistic.

“It is true that my project is more radical and perhaps more difficult,” said Fillon, whose economic ideas have been compared to those of late British prime minister Margaret Thatcher. The 62-year-old devout Catholic wants to slash an eye-popping 500,000 public sector jobs over five years and scrap the 35-hour working week in a bid to kick-start the sluggish French economy.

He is also more socially conservative, believes France is “on the verge of revolt”, and takes a harder line on Islam in France. Juppe has stressed how many on the far-right are in favour of his rival’s proposals.

“No, France is not a multi-cultural country. France has a history, a language and a culture which have naturally been enriched from outside,” Fillon said yesterday during the debate.